Blood Lust
by xsakura-shinigamix
Summary: SASUSAKU request. Sakura is on a solo mission and during her trip she has to rest in an abandoned village overnight. There she confronts a demon-like creature. Note*: This fic can also be found on my personal Tumblr Blog (sakura-shinigami) as well as my DeviantART account (kuroshitsuji1)


Konoha had become a very quiet place ever since Naruto left for training with his sensei and Sasuke was a missing nin. Sakura had been Tsunade's apprentice ever since and had already advanced to Chuunin. A whole year had passed by without her former teammates being by her side. She didn't know who she missed more. Her best friend or the man to whom her love belonged. But she always had friends around her who made her forget about all the difficulties, trying to cheer her up and going on missions with her. Ino knew how the young shinobi felt and was always supporting her whenever she needed her.

Sakura would often tag along with Team 10 on missions. She was also a big help to Ino since Sakura had a much higher level than her in Medical Ninjutsu. Although Ino became an apprentice of Tsunade as well, she only learnt the basics, not proceeding to strength training.  
Team 10 had headed out on a mission alone this time and Sakura spent her free time at the Hospital, treating patients and helping out Shizune. She didn't want to stay home because of her parents. They would always drag her to do housework, so she preferred to rather be of some help to the Medical Ninja.

"Sakura, I need you to go get something for me."  
Tsunade had called the pink haired girl in her office to send her on a special solo mission. Sakura was always complaining about not having anything to do without Team 10 being around, having already finished her training and having treated all the patients, so the Fifth decided to keep her on the move for some time.  
"You have to travel to Sunagakure." She said with a serious tone, crossing her arms and looking outside her window.  
"S-Suna?"  
Sakura was surprised. It was the first time her sensei would send her on a solo mission. She was a bit nervous.  
"They have a wide variety of healing herbs which are impossible to grow in our lands and that's why the Sand wants to lend us some of their merchandize. It's not going to be much, but it certainly is very important for Konoha to get these herbs."  
"Ah, of course, milady!" she responded, bowing in front of her sensei and leaving the office.  
The way to Suna was long and not to mention how tiring it would be to cross the great desert in the midst of daylight.

Sasuke was in the middle of training when Orochimaru entered his room, wanting to ask the young Uchiha for a favor.  
"What do you want, Orochimaru?" Sasuke wasked with a grumpy attitude. He always hated being interrupted while training.  
"Oh, Sasuke-kun, I see you're in the middle of training." the Sannin replied.  
"It's been a whole year since you've been given the Curse Mark. I may like the run some tests, if you don't mind." He let out a derisive laughter and looked at the Uchiha.  
"Tests?" the boy asked.  
"You're going to test a new venom. It might make your immune system stronger."  
"Might?"  
"Yes, of course there is the possibility that you'll run amok after you take it, but I'm positive that your body will sustain it."  
Sasuke sighed and agreed to take the venom in Curse Mark State. What he didn't know.. is that Orochimaru had extracted that venom from a bat. The effects it will have on the shinobi, would bring anyone around him in danger.  
"Very well, then, you'll be alone for some time. There is an abandoned village at the boarders of the Land of Fire. We're going there."  
Orochimaru stepped outside and left his student behind, leaving him time to rest and get ready for the journey. He would test the venom in an abandoned place in order to avoid any useless ruckus. He already had enough human sacrifices.

"Temeee~!" the girl sighed and took a seat on a rock. She didn't go very far, but the sun was boiling hot.  
Nearby the spot she rested was a small village called Akiko. It seemed deserted and lifeless, though.  
"Hello? Is anyone here? I… I need some water!" she shouted, but got no answer.  
She slowly approached further into the empty village, in hopes of finding a fountain or a well.  
"_It's getting late already. Sigh.. I'll have to camp here._"  
The girl took off her backpack and wiped away the sweat from her forehead. On the wooden balcony of an empty house yard, she laid a sleeping bag and a blanket. She made sure to take precautions by setting up traps around the area. Iron strings and paper bombs should be enough to alert her in case of an ambush.

She was sleeping very tight, not a single noise could wake her up. The wind made calming sounds as it blew through the open windows and stroke the tree leaves with its breeze. The high temperatures during the day made it really chilly at night, so she had wrapped herself completely into her bed sheets.  
Suddenly, one of the iron strings sounded like being pushed aside. She woke up and looked around panicked.  
"H-Hello..?" she asked with a trembling voice.  
"Anyone?"  
She closed her eyes to focus on sensing chakra and felt the presence of a human. Its chakra was strong and intense.  
"_Shit…_"  
She rushed out of her sleeping bag and gathered the rest of her stuff. She put it aside and took out a kunai with her. Carefully stepping forward, she tried to locate the chakra once again.  
"I… I don't have any goods with me, so robbing me would be a waste of time." She yelled out to the void. It was pitch black and she didn't bring a torch with her. The only light source was the full moon above her.  
A branch sounded like breaking. She turned around and gasped, still holding the kunai knife. Her hands were shaking. She had already become a chuunin due to her medical knowledge and chakra control, but she's only been in a real fight twice or three times since then. And she was always with Team 10. Being alone kind of scared her now.  
"Who is there?" she asked again, but no answer came.  
The presence became stronger and she was stepping back in angst. She tripped over a rock and fell on her back, dropping the kunai and hitting the back of her head on the ground.  
"Ouch.." she was holding the aching point with both of her hands to linger the pain and then heard a noise again.  
It sounded like a beast was groaning. Taking deep and heavy breaths. It came from in front of her. Wandering her hand on the ground, she tried to find the kunai . She looked ahead and saw golden flashes of light right before her eyes. She was in shock and couldn't move. Her body was paralyzed. Those flashes came closer and closer, but her body was still not responding. It was like someone had casted a genjutsu on her. From her vague eyes she saw a male creature standing in front of her. She recognized wings on its back and long silver hair. Its lips seemed to be black as coal and its teeth were pointy and looked razor sharp. The creature's skin was also very dark. It looked like a crossover of a human and a demon. Its body characteristics were clearly those of a young man.

He looked down at the girl and examined her whole body with his eyes. Pink colored, semi-long hair and a headband from Konoha. Her green eyes were standing out and shined even brighter in the moonlight. He recognized her. That girl… was Sakura. She couldn't see his face clearly and neither has she ever seen him in this form, so he wouldn't be discovered by her.  
Her scent. It's the same as one and a half years ago. She smelled like flowers. Something he hadn't smelled ever since he left the village.  
His feelings were mixed up. He never expected to meet one of his former teammates in a place like this. He didn't _want_ to see any of them either. If anyone would ask him how he felt, his answer would probably be either "confused" or "neutral". Two days ago he had taken in the venom Orochimaru prescribed him. That venom caused him immense blood-lust, that's why Orochimaru had sent him to this abandoned village, so that he could get used to not drinking any blood and sustain his hunger. But the urge for blood boiled up in him when he saw her.

He came down on his knees, being face to face with her. He looked into her eyes, seeing the fear in them. She was scared to death. He leaned forward and raised his hand to touch her cheek. A hoarse voice spoke out of the monster.  
"Sa… kura…" the creature said.  
When he touched her, her body only started trembling harder. Cold sweat was running down her spine. A tear fell from her eye.  
He didn't want to drink her blood, but he had no other choice. His body was not strong enough to resist, yet.  
He stroke her cheek blandly and opened his mouth, his white and pointy teeth showing. His hand went down to her neck and he pulled back her soft silky hair. He would regret it, but it was already too late for him. He had no place for regrets in his heart. To achieve his goal, he had to bring sacrifices. Even if that meant hurting one of his friends. He had to take the risk.  
Sasuke grabbed Sakura by the neck and quickly dug his teeth into her skin. She woke up from her paralysis and felt pain on the right side. The creature with the immense chakra was sucking out her blood, but… it felt good. Her eyes were wide open. She felt the creature's warmth running through her entire body. His teeth being stuck on her flesh.  
Her hand moved by itself and she placed it on his head, as if she didn't want him to stop, clenching her finger and holding his rough, silverish hair.  
Sasuke felt her touch and realized she must be in a trance state. Probably the venom inserted her system the moment he started sucking out her blood. Her body was relaxed. She voiced out moans of pleasure as he continued taking in her blood, but he had to stop, otherwise she would die.  
He carefully took his teeth out of her skin and saw the rest of the blood running down her neck and reaching her chest. He had to close the wound, so he licked the blood off of her and used chakra to stop the bleeding. Her sight was blurry, she couldn't see anything. Her body had lost too much blood.

Taking her in his arms and carrying her back to her sleeping pack, his body started changing form. It retreated from Curse Mark State and he now looked like his old self again. Sakura had lost consciousness and luckily didn't see him like that.  
He had ripped off a piece of her shirt to clean up the wound, but couldn't leave it behind. It would give out his normal scent.  
He could erase his traces as along as his human body did not come into interaction with another human and that's why he had to be very careful of everything he touched in his normal state.

As he wanted to take his leave and finally return back to the Hideout, now that he was able to retrieve the Curse Mark, he looked back once more at her sleeping face. It was peaceful, but also very pale.  
_"I'm sorry… Sakura."_ He whispered to himself as he left her behind.

The next morning she woke up and immediately felt dizzy. Her left side was completely numb and her head hurt a lot.  
"What… happened last night?" she mumbled while patting her head.  
She turned around and saw the kunai she had dropped before. Then she remembered..  
"Oh, yeah… right.. A creature attacked me last night. It looked like a demon. Did it…_leave_?" she asked herself in confusion. She couldn't sense any different chakra anymore, so she assumed she was now safe. It made her wonder that she had no clue of what happened the night before.  
"My head hurts so much! Ghh.." she complained.  
"The last thing I remember was…"  
Suddenly she had a flashback of the creature. Its face appearing, like a dream. It had golden eyes and dark skin with silver hair and wings. She saw it from very near..  
"That… thing… Knew my name."  
When the monster spoke out her name, that was when her memory got hazel. She remembered that she was in shock, but what happened after…  
She felt the wind hitting her shoulder, realized there was a piece of cloth missing and also… She had two stitch-like wounds on her neck. She touched them and felt the hardened blood.  
"What on earth… happened to me?…"  
She didn't had time to worry about that any longer,though. She had a mission to fulfill. Quickly performing some medical ninjutsu to clean and re-close the wound, she got ready to head on to Suna.

As she was leaving the village Akiko, she looked back once more and felt a cold aura coming from it. Almost like a haunted place.  
Shaking her head to wake up from hallucinating, she took a deep breath and continued her trip.

Sasuke had returned to Orochimaru's hideout, reporting the effects of the venom. His body was now immune to blood toxins.


End file.
